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Saturday, April 25, 2009

Troy State's Freshman Spring

Time for some new music on The Clouds, and this time around, I've decided to pull out the Troy State Freshman Spring playlist... these are all songs that were released, out and popular between December and June of 1994... my winter & spring quarters as a frosh at Troy State University...

"Cantaloop" by Us3... Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, we have something special down here at Bird Land this evening, a recording from Blue Note Records. I dare you not to get into this beat.

"Mary Jane's Last Dance" by Tom Petty... I don't think, even as an 18 year old, I recognized this song being about mary-ju-wanna at the time. This brings back memories of Erin Magonigal sitting with myself, Lisa Murphy, Allison Wiggins, Stephanie Massey, Wookiee, The Wench and Kate Gates, singing along during dinner at SAGA. The video, featuring a then-young-and-hot Kim Basinger? Awesome.

"Because the Night" by 10,000 Maniacs... There's a bridge at the end of the song that I, to this day, still have no clue what exactly she's saying. I actually made up an entire verse that had something to do with "I have no... idea... what to sing so I will go... and make... it up". I sang this to Lisa Murphy while driving to Subway around 1am one night. She loved it. Lisa Murphy rocked.

"...And Our Feelings" by Babyface... Ever had those songs that are like, forever old, and to this day, when they come on, you're still all about it? Babyface was awesome back in the day... this is one that I happily sing along to, loudly, while in the car... "AAAAnd our feeeelings! Just aren't feelings anymore... they're just words without emotions from people we don't know... No! No! No No No nonononono!!!!"

It also helps that the song title has at its beginning an ellipsis. You know my love of ellipses... much better than the use of ( ) in song titles (more on that below).

"You Mean the World to Me" by Toni Braxton... This song is part of the Toni Trifecta, also featuring "Another Sad Love Song" and "Breathe Again". Its rare for any artist to have three straight incredibly incredible songs, but she did it. I love me some Toni... she's who my car is name after.

"Mr. Jones" by Counting Crows... My main problem with Adam Duritz is how in the world he could be some homely looking and still get with all these hot celebrities? In his prime, he dated not only a in-her-prime Jennifer Aniston, but also a in-her-prime Courtney Cox, a still in-her-prime Monica Potter and even a relatively-cute-then Winona Ryder. This would be like dopey me dating Julie Wise and Sandy Wright, but then going on to date Tiffany Abbott, followed by Laura DeGarmo before finally ending up with The Lovely Steph Leann. Wait... come to think of it, I had a pretty good run myself. Scratch all that.

"Come to My Window" by Melissa Ethridge... For The Lovely Steph Leann's money, she'd take "I'm The Only One" over this song anytime. Not me. I love the slow kick off, followed by the great vocals and guitar. I mean, yeah, she's singing in the choir of the Lesbetarian Church, but still... just cause Elton John is Brokeback doesn't mean that "Your Song" is any less diminished. So be it with Melissa.

"All I Wanna Do" by Sheryl Crow... I feel sad that Sheryl Crow has slowly become a laughing stock liberal. She used to be so awesome! As a matter of fact, I'm actively working on a list of "d$'s Favorite Artists, Ever", and Sheryl has to be Top Five. "The Globe Sessions"? One of my favorite CDs, ever.

"Stay" by Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories... There are those songs that you know by heart, and can sing anytime, anywhere. Then there are those songs that you know by heart, but you can't start in the middle... you have to start at the beginning. If someone said to you, "Hey, what's that part in the song about living forever? How does it go, I would have to start at the beginning, singing really softly and quickly to myself, "yousayidonlyhearwhatiwantto... (mumble through the verse)... soiturntheradiooniturntheradioupandthiswomanwassingingmysong... (mumble some more)... someofushoverwhilewerewaitingfortheotherwhowasdying... (a big more mumbling)... and I thought I'd live forever, and now I'm not so sure!! That's it!"

"Shine" by Collective Soul... I think Collective Soul could have been bigger, had they not come on the heels of Pearl Jam and Nirvana. They were rock without being metal, and were still pretty cool. As it is, they were awesome for the next, I dunno, like 7 years or something... "Gel", "December", "The World I Know" and one of my favorite running/driving songs, "Heavy". This song started it all though. There was a rumor that dcTalk's "So Long My Friend", a song about someone who gave up their walk with Christ to be famous, was about Collective Soul.

"Loser" by Beck... Let's face it, I don't know what this song is about. No, you don't either. Don't try.

"Regulate" by Warren G feat. Nate Dogg. Had to listen to this song throughly to make sure the only questionable material in the song was just mentions of tricks and ho's. We're good.

Maybe this was the first, maybe it wasn't, but this song was at the beginning of the "Featuring" trend. Remember how Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson sang "Say Say Say"? It was "Say Say Say" by Paul McCartney AND Michael Jackson. The "And" represented the fact that both parties did equal amounts of work. But here? Its not Warren G and Nate Dogg... oh nay nay. Its Warren G "FEATURING" Nate Dogg... and its not even "featuring", its "feat.". Can you imagine "Islands in the Stream" by Dolly Parton feat. Kenny Rogers? Or "Endless Love" by Diana Ross feat. Lionel Richie? I'm more bitter about this than I am with the use of ( ) in songs.

I hate when a song uses parantheses in the title. Bryan Adams, are you listening? Either name your song "Everything I Do", or "I Do It For You", or even "Everything I Do I Do It For You", but don't throw ( ) in there. "Everything I Do (I do it for you)". Why? "Over My Head (cable car)" is stupid. Either call it "Over My Head", or "The Cable Car", or even throw a / in there... "Over My Head/Cable Car" would work, though still silly, just not as silly. There are no reasons to have subtitles in your songs. Unless your Meat Loaf, and in that instance, your songs are 24 minutes long, so you probably deserve a subtitle. Just my thoughts.

Anyway, everyone now... "REEEGGUUULLLAAATTOOOORRSSS!!!!!! Mount up."

"The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" by Prince... One of The Purpled One's lesser known tunes, I like it. I own the cassette single. It's fun. It's silky. It's Prince before he lost all of his talent.

"The Sign" by Ace of Base... Personally, I preferred "Don't Turn Around", but this one is the most popular.

"Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by The Crash Test Dummies... In the archives of ridiculous songs, this has to be right up there. I daresay that when this song comes on the playlist, this will be the first time some of you have either ever heard this song, or have heard it in about, maybe 14 or 15 years.

4 comments:

Awesome. Although these songs take me back to 8th grade (I forget sometimes that you are that much older than me), what a fun trip down memory lane. I thought that Cantaloop was a pretty obscure song that me and my friends stumbled on to. I had that cassette single...maybe I still do. Anyway, enjoyed the post and hearing some of these songs that you are absolutely right, I had not heard in 15 years probably. Hard to believe that's possible. (I am a little sad that the Spin Doctors didn't make the list though. Wasn't that the same time period?)

Yes, the Spin Doctors were the same time period... but Pocket Full of Kryptonite came out in 1992, as did singles "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" and "Two Princes", as well as "Jimmy Olsen's Blues" (my favorite)... but by Spring 94, all of their singles had come and gone. They released a new album in the fall of 94 (I think it was called "turn it upside down" or something) and their first single was "You Let Your Heart Go To Fast", which came out in September of 94--the beginning of my Soph year. The album fizzled, though.